Whale Meat: A School Lunch Treat?

by Jennifer Lawinski, Posted Feb 1st 2011 @ 4:00PM

canned whale meat Photo: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Alamy

A Japanese elementary school kicked off a whale of a controversy during its observance of a national week to commemorate lunches in public schools.

For its special menu one day last week, Azabu Elementary School in central Tokyo's Minato ward served the students whale meat, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The School Affairs Section of the Secretariat of the Minato Board of Education said in a written statement that each school was free to plan its special menus that week, and the goal was to include "traditional, local, historical, and cultural dishes," a blogger for the paper wrote.

Japan continues to flaunt a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling put in place by the International Whaling Commission. The country says the whale hunts are for research purposes, but the sea mammals' meat can be found on some grocery store shelves -- and in this case, school lunchrooms.

"Whale was a source of protein in Japan's post-war diet, and some middle-aged Japanese people fondly recall looking forward to whale the way today's children look forward to pizza," the Journal reported.

Yeah, we'll stick with pepperoni, thanks.

Filed Under: Food News
Tags: eating whale, whale, whale meat

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-01-2011 @6:04PM vizslalvr said... This is absolutely unconscionable.
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2-01-2011 @7:16PM Melly said... I had smoked whale in Norway. It was tasty.
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2-02-2011 @12:29AM Kevin Lin said... whale meat is probably too fatty anyway...completely outweighs its nutritional value....why would such shameless idiots use and kill these critically endangered animals?!
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2-02-2011 @1:39AM whaleman said... Whale meat is not fatty like Beef or Pork, Kevin. Red meat and fat can be easily separated. School children eat red meat. Minke whales are not endangered, btw. "The present population worldwide is believed to be over a millions animals." - American Cetacean Society Cf. http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/ethnic-foods/8081/2
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